Wood Warblers were singing on the Kotor Fort Trail as we headed off early morning, and people were already starting their hikes. We were going elsewhere though, aiming for Tivat on the other side of the hill, where there are some salt pans and pools at Solila Nature Reserve. This was easily the best place we went birding over the weekend, and as we walked up and down the bunds we picked up various waders and other birds. There were not huge numbers of anything, but certainly a lot more diversity than anywhere else. Common Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Redshank, Ruff and Black-winged Stilt were all seen, and of note were at least six Kingfishers. Passerines were well represented by Cetti's Warbler, Zitting Cisticola, Whinchat, Wheatear, Garden Warbler, Yellow Wagtail, Tawny Pipit and Yellowhammer.
 |
| Zitting Cisticola |
As we had started so early we felt we had time to carry on further around the coast and then inland to Virpazar on Lake Skadar close to the Albanian border. This was also extremely birdy, with immense numbers of Pygmy Cormorants in the shallow reedy water that formed an extensive part of the lake's southern shore. I think you can take boat trips here, but we decided to view the lake from two key points - firstly a vantage point high up above Virpazar, and then also from the obvious road bridge a little further north and from where you can see into the western arm of the lake. By now we were of course well into our eBird listing, and careful scoping picked up two Dalmatian Pelicans, three Marsh Harriers, three Black-necked Grebes, four Squacco Herons, and five prized Magpies! We also then birded a small river just over the bridge, you take a track to the right shortly after the houses run out, and runs parallel to a ditch before hitting the river. We added Greenfinch and Goldfinch here in the woods by the water, as well as the by now common Tree Pipit, Wood Warbler, and more Kingfishers.
 |
| Lake Skadar, looking towards the bridge from Virpazar |
 |
| Wood Warbler |
From here we headed into Lovcen National Park (small entrance fee at a booth), aiming for the highest peak where there is a mausoleum built into the rock honouring Petar II Petrovic-Njegos, otherwise known as Njegos, a former leader (both religious and political) of Montenegro. He was also a poet and philosopher, so quite the CV. Regrettably we didn't visit, but the place was absolutely heaving with day-trippers doing exactly this. So much so that there was no point trying to bird the area (which has a Gosney stamp of approval) and we were forced to move on - further along the road we picked up Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Marsh Tit, Green Woodpecker and Firecrest.
 |
| Treecreeper |
 |
| Kotor from Lovcen |
 |
| Red-backed Shrike |
We left the National Park via the western road which leads down towards Kotor and Tivat. It is quite the drive, with a series of incredible hairpin bends as you descend down to the town. We were thus quite close to Solila once again, and with no better ideas we returned to bird it again. I don't think we picked up anything new, and quite a few of the morning's waders had disappeared. The day had been spent driving a large loop, but we needed to get back to Croatia to be in position for a bit of early morning birding before our flight. We drove up through Tivat to the Lepetane-Kamenari ferry which saved driving around the water, and then took the coast road up to Dubrovnik, crossing the border at Debel Brijeg. We had managed 88 species in Montenegro.
 |
| Solila NR |
No comments:
Post a Comment